Friday, November 30, 2007

Moved again, this time within the same country

I've moved so many times this year, it's hard to believe. 5 times, I think. But this time it was from Beijing to another part of Beijing much closer to work. In fact, the commute went from 75 minutes to about 7 minutes. No buses or taxis anymore are needed just descending 22 stories and crossing 2 major streets which is actually quite dangerous.

The new apartment isn't quite as new or swanky as the previous one (I'll add photos soon) but the overall situation is better. I guess the best thing is that the water pressure is really good so taking a shower is much nicer. I believe it's about 128 square meters versus 103. So we have a bit more space that we didn't really need and we still have the same basic floor plan (2 bed, 1 bath, kitchen, living room) but extra furniture now.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Birthday celebrations at work






Just a quick post to show an event at my job in Beijing. Every month, they have a birthday celebration for all the people with birthdays in that month. There's fruity birthday cake and singing "happy birthday" in English. This is pretty similar to companies in the USA. Except at my company there are only 4 non-chinese (1 English, 1 Canadian, 2 Americans) out of about 150 employees.

In the photos you'll notice everybody is dressed in warm clothing. We still have no heating in Beijing for one more week. The government controls the central heating. So the outer offices, like the "games" room and my office are quite chilly. Apparently, when the heat comes on, it's too hot all the time and can't be easily regulated. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I guess I'll see.